The present invention is concerned broadly with apparatus adapted to aid in football kicking training. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with the various systems adapted to temporarily store one or more footballs, and thereafter to serially position them for subsequent kicking. It is believed that United States Class 273, Sub-Class 55B is most relevant.
As will readily be appreciated by both football players and others skilled in the sport of football, and the requisite proficiency necessary for success demands constant practice of the various skills associated with the game. One important skill involves place kicking. The place kick may be employed to initiate play, or to score field goals or points after touch downs.
The kicking skill is a highly specialized art requiring a great deal of physical and mental concentration and training. Long hours of repetitive kicking practice are demanded for successful mastering of the technique. In the past it has been common practice for footballs to be held by an associate player. Alternatively, apparatus adapted to temporarily hold single footballs for subsequent kicking may be employed.
Examples of prior art football kicking training devices, which are adapted to temporarily hold single footballs for subsequent kicking may be seen in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,897,948, issued to R. Gerela on Aug. 5, 1975; 4,049,267, issued to C. Forrest on Sept. 20, 1977; and 3,762,706, issued to M. Cavett on Oct. 2, 1973. A related training aid involving a net which is automatically raised to provide a timing interval for kicking training is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,147, issued to S. Shapiro on Sept. 17, 1974. Less relevant prior art may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,602,506 and 3,901,515.
All of the prior art football holding devices known to me require that footballs be manually inserted and/or set-up. Thus, after practicing a kick, typical prior art devices must be manually reloaded. Thus a great deal of time may be wasted by constantly reloading the apparatus. Particularly in the case of high school or college athletics, for example, the reloading process wastes valuable and limited time available to such athletes for training. Thus a need exists for automatically and repetitively setting up footballs for efficient football kicking practice.